our mission & strategy

MISSION:

Wereldhave's mission is to operate our shopping centres and offices to generate solid long term societal and financial returns for all stakeholders.

STRATEGY:

During the years 2012 up to 2016, Wereldhave has evolved from a diversified property investor into a pure retail platform over several phases. In the Derisk phase (2012/2013) the US and UK portfolios were sold, followed by the disposals of the French offices and the Spanish property portfolio. The Regroup phase (2013/2014) was used to build a strong retail platform. During the Growth phase (2014/2015) Wereldhave acquired 6 shopping centres in France and 9 in the Netherlands. The years 2015 and 2016 were used tointegrate the new portfolios into the organisation. From 2017 onwards, our focus will now be on the optimisation of the portfolio and the rotation of assets. We anticipate internal growth and limited external growth. We will dispose assets disciplined and selectively, using the proceeds to further enhance the overall quality of the portfolio. With our strategy, we respond to the market, environmental and societal trends and developments below.

Ageing population and ongoing urbanisation Fertility rates in North Western Europe are low and the population is ageing. Urban environments are still growing, as the population is leaving the rural areas.Our response:Wereldhave focuses on shopping centres on prime locations in the larger regional cities, with strong underlying demographic and economic fundamentals. We aim to improve this focus with selective asset rotation.

Proximity and time efficiency Driven by time pressure, nowadays customers value quick-and-easy shopping excursions.Our response:We focus on convenience shopping, with strong food anchors to ensure a high and stable footfall. Our centres cover all the daily shopping needs. They are dominant in their catchment area and in size range between 20,000m² and 50,000m². Being located in larger regional cities, travel time is limited. With excellent parking facilities and good public transport connections, we provide quick and easy shopping. We aim to finalise the look&feel upgrade of the entire portfolio (excluding the development pipeline) by year-end 2018.

Shopping experienceCustomers want a social shopping experience with new and exciting retail formats, leisure and entertainment, with food and beverage becoming an increasingly important component.Our response:We tailor the choice of tenants, events and marketing to the local environment. Our shopping centres must play a meaningful role for the community they are serving. We aim to allocate 1% of NRI annually to create meaningful local events and position our centres to really become the centre where people go to shop, meet and enjoy themselves. Committed and loyal customers and their stable or increasing footfall will drive value for our tenants and – ultimately – our rental income. We aim to enhance the customer journey of our centres. Our convenience shopping criteria have been implemented in all centres.

Mobile worldWith mobile hi-speed Internet availability, prices have become transparent. This puts a pressure on retailer margins.Our response:Our centres are food anchored, preferably with one hypermarket or two to three supermarkets. This not only adds to the convenience, but food sales have also shown to be most economic robust and internet resilient as online impact on groceries is very limited. In addition, supermarkets ensure two-thirds of the visitor base. We aim to maintain our leasing excellence and to increase our internet resilience to 85% or higher in 2019. Since 2012, the share of resilient retail formats in our centres increased from 74% to 81% in2016.

Strategic management agenda 2017-2019

Optimizing the retail platform, realising internal growth.

Our main target for the years 2017 – 2019 is to increase the market share in the micro environment of our shopping centres.